{"id":792679,"date":"2026-07-10T11:33:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T11:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/792679\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T11:33:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T11:33:11","slug":"u-s-soccers-pay-to-play-problem-the-lightning-rod-issue-explained-in-a-world-cup-context","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/792679\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. soccer\u2019s \u2018pay-to-play\u2019 problem: The lightning-rod issue explained in a World Cup context"},"content":{"rendered":"

The inquest began before the final whistle even sounded, before Belgium Trump-danced on the U.S. men\u2019s national team<\/a>, before the USMNT\u2019s World Cup officially ended<\/a>. America began to ask why; why was it out in the round of 16 yet again<\/a>? And why was a country of 11.8 million people so much better at soccer than one of 340 million?<\/p>\n

Inevitably, and often correctly, answers zeroed in on youth soccer.<\/p>\n

The \u201cpay-to-play\u201d system flooded to the forefront of discourse and shouldered blame.<\/p>\n

Behind the scenes, it was also a point of discussion, before and after the USMNT\u2019s elimination, but solving this decades-old problem is a monumental task \u2014 because the \u201cpay-to-play\u201d moniker oversimplifies it.<\/p>\n

The term, \u201cpay-to-play,\u201d generally refers to a U.S. youth soccer landscape where families must pay for their kids to play on amateur teams. They pay hundreds of dollars annually for their 6-year-old to play recreational soccer; thousands of dollars for their 12-year-old to play competitive \u201ctravel soccer\u201d; and in some extreme cases tens of thousands of dollars for their teenager to play for an elite club, perhaps to pursue a professional career or college scholarship.<\/p>\n

On the boys side, the most talented teens can ascend to the academies of Major League Soccer clubs, where they play for free; but to get noticed by MLS, they likely have to come through an amateur club that charges annual fees, plus additional money to travel to showcase tournaments. Developing into a top soccer player, therefore, requires some degree of privilege in the United States, contrary to other countries where the sport is an all-class game.<\/p>\n

The U.S., to be clear, is far from the only country where families pay for their kids to play soccer. But the costs are greater here than anywhere else.<\/p>\n

And soccer is not the only sport that\u2019s expensive in the U.S. But it gets the most attention because it\u2019s a global sport in which U.S. player development lags behind Europe.<\/p>\n

So, the U.S. system is worth an examination as the 2026 World Cup rolls on without its cohost.<\/p>\n

USMNT future and Poch’s contract after exit<\/p>\n

Why is \u2018pay-to-play\u2019 a problem?<\/p>\n

In some ways, the answer is obvious. If soccer costs money, millions of kids can\u2019t afford to play it.<\/p>\n

In addition to being unfair on an individual level, the cost restricts the pool of talent available to U.S. national teams. A country of 340 million people becomes, in soccer terms, a country of much fewer. Many of the supposed advantages associated with a large population simply don\u2019t apply.<\/p>\n

But the cost is also symptomatic of deeper structural issues<\/a> that lead to other distinct problems. For example, because most youth clubs are not in any way connected to professional teams, A) there are no revenue streams to subsidize the club other than parents, hence \u201cpay-to-play\u201d; and B) the club\u2019s main incentive is not to develop players into pros. Instead, it\u2019s to win games \u2014 which enhances the club\u2019s reputation and attracts customers (parents of soccer-playing kids). Oftentimes that desire to simply win clashes with individual player development \u2014 which is why some countries, such as Norway, a nation of 5.6 million people about to play a World Cup quarterfinal, effectively ban league tables and championships until a kid reaches adolescence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The U.S. system \u201cis not a youth-centered or a talent-development system,\u201d Tom Farrey, executive director of the Aspen Institute\u2019s Sports & Society program, told The Athletic. \u201cIt\u2019s primarily a system set up to use kids to make money for adults.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AYSO<\/p>\n

\n Players at an AYSO\/U.S. Soccer youth soccer clinic in Atlanta in 2024 (Adam Hagy \/ ISI Photos \/ USSF \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Why does \u2018pay-to-play\u2019 exist?<\/p>\n

Playing youth soccer costs money in the U.S. because:<\/p>\n

Somebody has to pay for coaches, for playing fields, for referees, for balls and kits and all the other things required to run a soccer team; and
\nWhen soccer got popular as a participation sport last century<\/a>, there were no systems in place to subsidize those costs.<\/p>\n

In other countries, youth soccer is often subsidized by governments or professional soccer clubs. But in the U.S., under the Amateur Sports Act of 1978, the federal government does not fund any Olympic sports. And until the 2000s, there were no stable professional clubs with youth arms. Even during the North American Soccer League\u2019s run from 1968-1984, its franchises had no academies; they were disconnected from the youth soccer landscape.<\/p>\n

The landscape, therefore, became a \u201cWild West,\u201d as Farrey puts it. Anyone could start a youth soccer organization \u2014 if they had a viable business model to sustain it. And the most viable model was to start a club in upper-middle-class suburbs, hire coaches, rent fields and ask the upper-middle-class parents to pay for all of it. The ones with enough money would pay, because these clubs were often the only way to get their children into organized soccer, and in some cases because they saw soccer as a route to a college scholarship. (In other words, some saw it as a good investment.)<\/p>\n

By the time MLS franchises began to build out academies in the late 2000s and 2010s, a system structured around these amateur clubs was entrenched, far more entrenched than the professional league. And the U.S. Soccer Federation, the sport\u2019s national governing body, has largely been unable or unwilling to regulate those amateur clubs. They\u2019ve formed regional and even national leagues, which mandate significant travel, which adds thousands of dollars to some annual price tags.<\/p>\n

Those clubs and leagues fuel the \u201cyouth sports tourism\u201d industry, as some call it. Hotels, local governments and many others benefit \u2014 at the expense of families and soccer-playing kids. The \u201cpay-to-play\u201d system has become \u201cpay-to-play-and-travel.\u201d Across all youth sports, costs rose 46 percent from 2019 to 2025, according to Aspen Institute research<\/a>, and \u201ctravel is the biggest chunk of that,\u201d Farrey said. \u201cClub fees have gone up, uniforms have gone up, but travel is the biggest line item in a family\u2019s youth sports budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

\n ECNL (Elite Clubs National League) is among the many factions that make up the youth soccer system in the U.S. (Sandy Huffaker \/ The Washington Post \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Why is soccer, of all sports, so expensive?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not. This is an America problem, not a soccer problem. The root cause \u2014 a relatively unregulated amateur sports landscape \u2014 \u201cis a problem in multiple sports,\u201d Farrey said. \u201cThis is why baseball got crazy. This is why basketball got crazy. All of the sports, we had this Wild West, libertarian environment emerge.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201ccrazy\u201d costs plague those other sports, too, but they\u2019re more of a hindrance \u2014 and a hotter topic of discussion \u2014 in soccer because America\u2019s international competitors at tournaments like the World Cup boast developmental systems that are cheaper, more efficient, and fundamentally different.<\/p>\n

How do other countries keep costs down?<\/p>\n

No two national sport systems are the same<\/a>, but there are generally two approaches that shift financial burdens away from families:<\/p>\n

Governments that see value in youth sports participation, and that want to preempt its commercialization, allocate hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars annually to sports organizations, which can help offset costs.
\nProfessional soccer clubs directly and indirectly fund youth teams.<\/p>\n

The latter point is a complicated one, but the principle underpinning it isn\u2019t. Soccer, at the professional level, is big business. Millions of dollars hinge on results, so millions of dollars are spent to buy and employ players. Developing players at younger ages, then, is worth millions of dollars to a club \u2014 because the young players can either ascend to pro teams and help win games or be sold to other pro teams for profit.<\/p>\n

That principle supports soccer \u201cpyramids\u201d in dozens of countries. Formally, via training compensation<\/a> and solidarity payments, amateur clubs get compensated when a kid they develop becomes a million-dollar player. And informally, elite clubs forge relationships with non-elite clubs in the same geographic area. A top pro club in, say, Montevideo, Uruguay, is incentivized to help \u201cbaby f\u00fatbol\u201d clubs (youth clubs) across the region because it knows that in return, those clubs will funnel pre-teens and teens up into its academy; and the best teens can then be sold to richer clubs in Brazil or Europe for money that keeps the Uruguayan club afloat.<\/p>\n

In the U.S., MLS has now constructed the top of the pyramid. Its franchises run academy teams, which do not charge fees; but beneath them, the landscape is as messy and disjointed as ever.<\/p>\n

The \u201calphabet soup,\u201d as some call it, of leagues, teams, sanctioning organizations and other entities \u201cfeeds the beast and makes the game even more expensive,\u201d Matt Crocker told The Athletic before leaving his post as U.S. Soccer sporting director in April<\/a>. \u201cBecause the travel costs go up for kids, because they can\u2019t play (against) this team (in the same town) because they\u2019re in a different league.\u201d<\/p>\n

How much does youth soccer actually cost in the U.S.?<\/p>\n

The costs vary wildly by age, location, level, league and other factors. A grassroots team might charge $100-200 for a three-month fall season and not much else. At the other end of the range, some parents of girls in the Elite Clubs National League (ECNL) report paying upwards of $20,000 per year \u2014 inclusive of an annual fee, gear, extra tournaments and, most of all, travel.<\/p>\n

Crocker, having spoken with some of those families, said: \u201cThe parents were so stretched. It was so difficult. Which means that there will be players and children out there that we just lost to the system, they never even had an opportunity to play at that level.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the middle of that range, take a club like DC Soccer Club in the nation\u2019s capital. In 2026, it is charging<\/a> $140-$255 for fall rec league registration; $395 for kindergarteners, 1st graders and 2nd graders who want to try its \u201cpre-travel academy<\/a>\u201d; $1,700-$1,750 for its entry-level travel program<\/a> (ages 7-13); $2,100-$3,195 for its standard travel program; and $3,395-$3,500 for its academy program (ages 10-18), which covers three training sessions per week and games on the weekend over a 10.5-month season.<\/p>\n

On top of those fees, there are \u201cprocessing fees\u201d and additional costs for uniforms, some tournaments and travel. \u201cFinancial aid remains available for families that apply and qualify,\u201d the club says<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In general, across the board, Farrey said, costs really start to ramp up around age 9. \u201cThe travel team environment for 8-, 9-, 10- and 11-year-olds is out of control,\u201d he added. \u201cSo much money is being made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is all of this why the U.S. doesn\u2019t win the men\u2019s soccer World Cup?<\/p>\n

\u201cPay-to-play\u201d is part of the reason. It might be a relatively small part, but it stems from the same source as other parts: America\u2019s belated adoption of the world\u2019s game. Soccer didn\u2019t really take hold in the U.S. until the late 20th century and 21st century. The primary reason that the U.S. doesn\u2019t produce world-class men\u2019s soccer players boils down to one word: culture<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the country\u2019s youth soccer systems are a secondary reason, and the cost of playing is absolutely part of that.<\/p>\n

Some of the costs are necessary; many aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing wrong with paying to play,\u201d Farrey noted. \u201cPeople are providing a service, and we want coaches to have background checks and (be) trained and provide a good experience to kids. People should be writing checks, there\u2019s value there. \u2026 There\u2019s nothing wrong with having a capitalist model. But it has to be aligned with the literature around talent development and child development. Otherwise we\u2019re going to continue to wring more and more money out of families and continue to see poor results.\u201d<\/p>\n

Are things getting better or worse?<\/p>\n

On one hand, U.S. Soccer is doing more than ever before to ease friction and unify the landscape, multiple people in the youth soccer space have told The Athletic.<\/p>\n

In fact, during the USMNT\u2019s pre-World Cup camp at U.S. Soccer\u2019s new national training center in Georgia<\/a>, the federation hosted a variety of youth soccer administrators for a two-day summit. Throughout the World Cup, in every-other-day executive team meetings, youth soccer architecture was a regular topic of discussion. Four days after the USMNT\u2019s rousing win over Australia, when U.S. Soccer CEO JT Batson flew back to base camp after a couple days in New York, right before he headed to the national team\u2019s training session at Great Park in Irvine, Calif., he was engrossed in material related to the youth soccer work.<\/p>\n

Why? Because \u201cthat\u2019s what\u2019s going to lead to more and more World Cups over time,\u201d Batson told The Athletic. They remained \u201cvery active\u201d in youth soccer discussions throughout the month, he said, and had been consulting with FIFA\u2019s technical development group.<\/p>\n

The hope is that a more coherent landscape and player pathway would lower operational and travel costs for youth clubs and, by extension, families.<\/p>\n

But on the other hand, the incentives haven\u2019t changed, and the youth sport tourism industry isn\u2019t slowing down. In fact, it\u2019s growing. Private equity groups have gotten involved<\/a>. The price of play is as high as ever.<\/p>\n

At the top end, MLS is \u201cgoing down the right path\u201d with its free-to-play academies, Farrey said, \u201cbut they sit within a much larger ecosystem where everything is running the other direction.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The inquest began before the final whistle even sounded, before Belgium Trump-danced on the U.S. men\u2019s national team,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,103818,571,573,19224,561,82,575,133140],"class_list":["post-792679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fifa-mens-world-cup","tag-international-football","tag-mls","tag-norway","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-sports-business","tag-us-mens-national-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}